Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the public for the recent Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Facebook has released full-page ads in six British and three American newspapers apologising for the data breach.
The ad is in the form of a letter by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The ad attempts to clarify the situation, stressing on the fact that Facebook has already stopped apps from "getting so much information" and that data apps receive when a user signs in to Facebook is also being limited.
"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it," the ad reads.
The ad further apologises for the "breach of trust" and the failure of the company to take appropriate steps.
"This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the
time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again,"
the ad said
Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal: A timeline of key events so far
2013: The quiz ‘ThisisyourDigitalLife’ is created
A Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan created an app
called ‘ThisisyourDigitalLife’ which was a personality quiz in the year
2013. The app was used by over 300,000 users on Facebook, but Kogan also
managed to access the profile data of other Facebook users, who were
friends of those who had used the app. This resulted in Kogan getting
data of millions of users.2014: Facebook changes rules for apps on data sharing
Facebook in 2014 limited developer access to user data. It changed the rules to say that a developer could not access a user’s friends’ data unless the friend also gave permission for the same. However, Kogan did not delete the data he had acquired from his app.December 2015: Guardian reports on user data being used Cambridge Analytica
The first time this story of data leaks came out was in December 2015, when the Guardian reported that the firm Cambridge Analytica was helping Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in the US with the user profiles obtained from Facebook via the app. Facebook says when they learned about the data leaks they had banned Kogan’s app and asked both Cambridge Analytica and Kogan to delete all the data that was improperly acquired. Facebook claims the parties certified that the data had been deleted.March 2018: The Observer and New York Times break story on Cambridge Analytica-Facebook data leaks
On March 17 and March 18, 2018, New York Times and Observer in the UK reported how 50 million profiles of users were harvested to help Trump’s Presidential campaign and Pro-Brexit. Whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed how data of over 50 million users was gained from the app that Kogan had designed back in 2013 and then used to profile, target voters.Wylie revealed that the company successfully ‘exploited Facebook’ to target and mislead users. He has also alleged that Cambridge Analytica planted fake news. Facebook then announced it was suspending Cambridge Analytica from their platform along with its parent group Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) over the data leaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment